January has now surpassed April and December as the London region's deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported Friday the deaths of three more people. That brings the total number of deaths since the start of the year to 37. Prior to this, April and December were tied for the most COVID-19 deaths in a single month with 35.
The three latest deaths were among a man and woman in their 90s who lived in long term care and a man in his 70s who did not reside in an assisted living facility.
The total death toll for the London region since March is now 139.
There are indications that new COVID-19 cases in the area are beginning to level off. The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed 61 new infections Friday, down from 94 the previous day. This is the lowest number of daily COVID-19 cases to be reported since Christmas Day.
"These micro-trends are nothing to bank on, but they do give reason for hope," tweeted Dr. Chris Mackie, the region's medical officer of health.
Single-day cases have only dipped below the 100 mark seven times since December 31. Three of those double-digit days were logged this week.
The total case count stands at 4,872, with 3,305 of those cases resolved.
Outbreaks remain on two units at Victoria Hospital. Fewer than five patients and fewer than five staff members have tested positive for the virus. There are no deaths associated with the outbreaks. The London Health Sciences Centre said it currently has 35 inpatients with COVID-19, 14 of those patients are listed in intensive care. Nineteen staff members have contracted the virus.
Kensington Village is the latest local long-term care and retirement home to declare an outbreak. It came on the same day an outbreak at Earl's Court Village was resolved. That leaves 14 facilities battling outbreaks in London and Middlesex County.
Currently, there are 1,428 active cases in the region.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, recorded 42 new infections Friday. The health unit said the latest numbers bring its total case count to 1,962. The death toll is unchanged at 39 with zero additional deaths reported over the last 24 hours. There are seven local long-term care and retirement homes with active COVID-19 cases. The worst outbreak continues to be at Maple Manor in Tillsonburg where 80 residents and 49 staff members have tested positive. There are 13 deaths linked to the outbreak.
Recoveries in the two counties went up to 1,538, leaving 385 active cases.
Ontario saw a spike in COVID-19 deaths Friday.
Public health officials said there were 100 additional deaths.
However, the spike is due to a data-entry error in Middlesex-London that just accounted for 46 deaths that actually happened earlier in the pandemic.
There have been 5,289 deaths related to COVID-19 in Ontario throughout the pandemic.
Daily COVID-19 cases in Ontario were down on Friday.
Another 2,998 infections were reported, the third time this week daily numbers have been below 3,000.
Areas of the province with the highest number of new cases are Toronto with 800, Peel with 618, York Region with 250, Waterloo with 161, and Niagara with 153.
The total number of cases in the province has risen to 231,308.
According to the province’s daily report, 1,647 people with COVID-19 are in hospitals in Ontario. Of those in hospital, 387 are in the intensive care unit and 280 are on ventilators.
A record 76,472 COVID-19 tests were processed over the last 24 hour period. The positivity rate among those tested is 4.6 per cent.
As of 8 p.m. Thursday, the province has administered 174,630 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
